But why? These records are curated and can be accessed by anyone. That is literally the definition of the word public. If someone really wants access to a public record, all they have to do is make requests in order to get them. It can take a while. But that's really par for the course with items that are held by the government.

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In addition to government public records, there are other records that are available to anyone at anytime. We call these records the "internet." Tweets, Facebook posts, and just plain old websites all serve as publicly accessible data that can contain some private information. Basically, never type anything you don't want the world to know.

In the car world, we have these things called 'registries.' Certain fanatics will keep tabs on rare cars in order to establish their histories and if they are legitimate examples of the breed. These lists are then published online, frequently with VIN numbers, names, and locations of the cars. This is available to every single person on the internet in the world.